Some people like to know everything that is on their computer. Admittedly, I was one of these people many moons ago, when I was a Windows user. I would always make sure that Windows Explorer would show all hidden files and folders. I’m not sure why, but I liked it this way.

These days, I’m quite the opposite, as I like to see as little files and folders as possible on my Mac. But I understand some people out there have the desire to see all those files and folders, for whatever reason that may be.

In this post I will show you how to show hidden files and folders in Finder on your Mac…

How to show hidden files on OS X

If you use OS X 10.9 Mavericks or OS X 10.10 Yosemite, follow these steps to show hidden files in Finder:

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Name a file or folder .SOMETHING. Files prefixed with ‘.’ are automatically hidden. You’ll have to whip out the terminal to do it though and do the following:

Navigate to where the file is using ‘cd folder’ (e.g cd ~/Desktop which will take you to the desktop). To show files you can use the command ‘ls’. Once you’ve found the file or folder you want to hide issue the following command:

mv fileOrFolderName .fileOrFolderName

The above will rename the file and finder will no longer show the file or folder unless hidden files are set to be shown.

Carlos DeJesus

Sort of off topic but I was wondering if anyone might have an answer for me.
I have a Macbook Pro running the latest version of Mavericks and I had “CleanMyMac” awhile back and I deleted the application a long time ago. Every time I drag something into my trash I get a notification from CleaMyMac asking if it wants me to clear my trash contents but I don’t see how that can be if the app is no longer there. I’m assuming its hidden somewhere but I dont see it anywhere. I was hoping this article would show it but no luck. Any suggestions, ideas, and or comments. Anything is appreciated, thanks again.

Guest

I also need an answer, but my app is “iSkysoft”, it still has the app extension to Download any animated images, videos or clips even thought i deleted the App file…

Christopher

I think I found it, open the “Library” file, open Application support, you should be able to find something there, I had Mackeeper on my mac and there is a “Mackeeper Helper” file. There should be something similar…

Chetan

And to avoid copy pasting and to make life easy google search Hiddenfiles Widget and install it. It will put a small widget in your mac dashboard with just one simple button to hide and show hidden files. Its free and supports till mavericks.

Speak for yourself. I know what I’m doing with my Windows PC and I find taking the time to memorize bunch of commands is pointless when I have a GUI that achieves pretty much everything I could think of for my content.

Tearjerker

isn’t it easier to use Tinkertool?

Palmer Paul

If you’re a command line user, just cd to the directory (for example, cd ~/Desktop takes you to your Desktop) and use ls -a. The -a flag makes ls show all files (including hidden ones).

It didn’t work, I got to erase com.apple.finder.plist in ~/Library/Preferences/
Thanks!

Faizan Ather

i am unable unhide files on my mac YOSEMITE . on 2011 pro

john

Hi – it still doesn’t work. I’m grateful to you for showing the screenshots, but I – we – are definitely telling you: it doesn’t work in for us in Yosemite. Perhaps there are permissions issues in Yosemite for some users, but it will not work for me – not plainly, not even using sudo.

There is definitely an issue for some of us in Yosemite – I don’t know “Marc Cabana” above, but I’m saying the same thing as he has: this method doesn’t work even with the screenshots. We follow the exact steps and yet we still can’t see hidden files.

Please, update your advice (it is SO frustrating to keep being told “this works” when it doesn’t – and guys like me feel like we’re being treated like idiots when we say “it doesn’t work” and we’re told “here are some screenshots” or “here are the instructions again but now on different lines”).

Sometimes the person who says “it doesn’t work” is right – they’ve followed all the steps, they’ve tried it several times, and the instructions are incorrect. I’m typing this on a MacBook Pro which I literally only unboxed 12 hours ago – it’s so new, I’ve not even set up my Finder columns how I like them. So, a brand new Yosemite-installed MacBook Pro will not show me hidden files. I am going to try Marc’s method, of deleting the plist file. Looks like there’s gonna need to be some new advice for how to show hidden files.

David_Arditti

I found this as well on Yosemite. The instructions for Terminal will not work unless you also delete the file com.apple.finder.plist.

dannyR

Thanks. That was a lot easier than all the other song and dance YES didn’t work but _____ did, it doesn’t work in _________, etc. yadda, yadda.